So I've seen messages usually on advertisement type subs that have embedded Cp437 style art with color, call it ANSI art if it fits - I'm not 100% certain it meets the criteria as I'm beyond a 1:1 create ansi:upload ansi, trying preprocessing, making dead simple ones, etc. all coming out wonky.

I have been uploading the files into the message boards using ZModem in the editor. I've got a pre-processing script to add some crlf at the end of lines to wrap and strip sauce and when I open those files in an editor they look ok. Adding line feeds does seem to maybe improve things, instead of seeing: "Added
5 lines", I'm seeing "added 37 lines" (size of ansi) after upload. There's less over lap.

I'll cut myself short as I realize there's not that much value in saying all the things I've tried at this point as there's probably someone who has a technique for how to make ANSI messages that look good when browsing forums. Maybe it's how I'm drawing the art, processing it, exporting it or uploading it, I don't know. Any veteran advice appreciated.

Cheers

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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to All on Sun Sep 28 2025 10:01 am

So I've seen messages usually on advertisement type subs that have
embedded Cp437 style art with color, call it ANSI art if it fits
- I'm not 100% certain it meets the criteria as I'm beyond a 1:1
create ansi:upload ansi, trying preprocessing, making dead simple
ones, etc. all coming out wonky.

that's a whole lot of jibber jabber.

what method are you using to upload the file?
what editor are you using to make the ansi file?

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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to All on Sun Sep 28 2025 10:01 am

I have been uploading the files into the message boards using ZModem in the editor. I've got a pre-processing script to add some crlf at the end of lines to wrap and strip sauce and when I open those files in an editor they look ok. Adding line feeds does seem to maybe improve things, instead of seeing: "Added 5 lines", I'm seeing "added 37 lines" (size of ansi) after upload. There's less over lap.

Which editor?
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #86:
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: MRO to Hm Derdoc on Sun Sep 28 2025 10:07 pm

what method are you using to upload the file?
what editor are you using to make the ansi file?

I am using the stock synchronet editor, typing /upload and uploading via ZModem in
syncterm.

I'll use Moebius or PabloDraw to edit the files, then I run em through a script that
should 1) add line feeds (just guessing this may be needed) 2) remaps any ICE charactarers and 3) removes the SAUCE data.

What I'm doing isn't really that important though, it's not working and I'm not using any
point of reference, some people out there have it sorted out - I want to know what they
do rather than diagnose what I've done, but perhaps it's uncommon to have issues here.

Maybe using a Mac doesn't help matters if no one else encounters this, perhaps it's doing
some funny business with the file. Can only speculate...

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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Digital Man to Hm Derdoc on Sun Sep 28 2025 08:53 pm

Which editor?

I'm using whatever the editor is when "Use external editor" is set to false (it was the
only one I saw included with an upload feature). Using Moebius / Pablo draw + python
script to insert line feeds, strip sauce, and remove ICE (this is mostly me just throwing
things and see what sticks).

Thanks,
hmd

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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to Digital Man on Mon Sep 29 2025 08:50 am

Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Digital Man to Hm Derdoc on Sun Sep 28 2025 08:53 pm

Which editor?

I'm using whatever the editor is when "Use external editor" is set to false (it was the only one I saw included with an upload feature).

Okay, good, that should work fine (usually call that the "internal editor" or the "line editor"). fseditor.js (default external editor) receives raw files via ZMODEM as well.

Using Moebius
/ Pablo draw + python script to insert line feeds, strip sauce, and remove ICE (this is mostly me just throwing things and see what sticks).

I'm not clear why you would need to insert line feeds. You probably shouldn't need to (I assume the lines would already be terminated with line feeds). Inserting line feeds into the middle of arbitrary ANSI escape sequences isn't likely to produce the output you want.

Have you tried displaying the file locally (before uploading) but after your script processes the file?

One other thing, your QWKnet tag line appears to be using an unsupported method of Ctrl-A code insertion, "\1" isn't how it's done in the
SCFG->Networks->QWK->Default Tagline. You should be able to just type a literal Ctrl-A character/key sequence there.
--
digital man (rob)

Steven Wright quote #24:
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to MRO on Mon Sep 29 2025 08:38 am

using to make the ansi file?

I am using the stock synchronet editor, typing /upload and uploading
via ZModem in syncterm.

you should enter raw mode and do a text upload
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: MRO to Hm Derdoc on Mon Sep 29 2025 09:26 pm



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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: MRO to Hm Derdoc on Mon Sep 29 2025 09:47 pm



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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: MRO to Hm Derdoc on Mon Sep 29 2025 09:48 pm

so make sure you are in raw mode with ctrl Z

then upload with syncterm with ascii upload.
make sure your ansi is issue free.

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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to MRO on Mon Sep 29 2025 08:38 am

Maybe using a Mac doesn't help matters if no one else encounters
this, perhaps it's doing some funny business with the file. Can only speculate...

if you want to send me the file i can look at it and send it back.
just do name@ my bbs url
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On 29 Sep 2025, MRO said the following...

ß²Ü
ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ
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ßÛÛÛÛÛÛß
ܲß

ONE BBSCON

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Digital Man to Hm Derdoc on Mon Sep 29 2025 10:48 am

I'm not clear why you would need to insert line feeds. You probably shouldn't need to ( > assume the lines would already be terminated with line feeds). Inserting line feeds int > the middle of arbitrary ANSI escape sequences isn't likely to produce the output you wa

I started inserting line feeds because when I'd upload a file that was 38 rows or so, it
would say "5 lines" inserted, and it would render on 5 lines, so it seemed like getting
that count up to the right number as my ANSI might give it the space it needed to render,
it did wind up with more vertical space, however alignment was still off horizontally. DoANSI editors insert line feeds by default though to wrap text? It's my understanding that
could also be controlled by the terminals own wrapping behavior or an escape sequence
telling it to go x = 1, y = y + 1... That is to say it doesn't seem like the ANSI
editor(s) I've used insert those, but I could be wrong I guess, but if they were there I'dexpect to see 38 lines uploaded when I just uploaded the untransformed output from pablo
draw or moebius.

Have you tried displaying the file locally (before uploading) but after your script

I've been looking at the transformations in Moebius to see if they are wonky, some come
out fine, others don't look great but I still upload em in my test group to see if they
solved anything. I just decided to drop one into a directory I can use echicken's
ansiviewer, and it looks ok there too. I do sort of wonder if my ANSI is too ambitious,
so I've sort of been trying just to render a much more basic rectangle, was out of
alignment last I checked too. I wonder if using 80 cols is too much sometimes for an ad.

processes the file?
One other thing, your QWKnet tag line appears to be using an unsupported method of Ctrl > code insertion, "\1" isn't how it's done in the
SCFG->Networks->QWK->Default Tagline. You should be able to just type a literal Ctrl-A
character/key sequence there.

Ahh thanks, I was wondering what it looked like, I couldn't see it in my own messages, I
edited some raw text file to set that up so that's why I used \1, wasn't sure it would
work, and now it's been confirmed not to ;)

Maybe there's some oddities to be taken into consideration when creating BBS ads, I'd
certainly start over from scratch if I knew I was using wrong technique before and right
technique going forward.

Cheers,
hm

---
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to Digital Man on Mon Sep 29 2025 04:30 pm

Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Digital Man to Hm Derdoc on Mon Sep 29 2025 10:48 am

I'm not clear why you would need to insert line feeds. You probably shouldn't need to ( > assume the lines would already be terminated with line feeds). Inserting line feeds int > the middle of arbitrary ANSI escape sequences isn't likely to produce the output you wa

I started inserting line feeds because when I'd upload a file that was 38 rows or so, it would say "5 lines" inserted, and it would render on 5 lines, so it seemed like getting that count up to the right number as my ANSI might give it the space it needed to render, it did wind up with more vertical space, however alignment was still off horizontally. DoANSI editors insert line feeds by default though to wrap text?

It depends on the editor. TheDraw was one of the most popular DOS ANSI editors and it had an option to set the max line length when saving a file.

It's my understanding that
could also be controlled by the terminals own wrapping behavior or an escape sequence telling it to go x = 1, y = y + 1... That is to say it doesn't seem like the ANSI editor(s) I've used insert those, but I could be wrong I guess, but if they were there I'dexpect to see 38 lines uploaded when I just uploaded the untransformed output from pablo
draw or moebius.

If you use the raw I/O mode (Ctrl-Z) to ASCII-upload your file, there should be no line-length limit imposed.

Have you tried displaying the file locally (before uploading) but after your script

I've been looking at the transformations in Moebius to see if they are wonky, some come out fine, others don't look great but I still upload em in my test group to see if they solved anything. I just decided to drop one into a directory I can use echicken's ansiviewer, and it looks ok there too. I do sort of wonder if my ANSI is too ambitious, so I've sort of been trying just to render a much more basic rectangle, was out of alignment last I checked too. I wonder if using 80 cols is too much sometimes for an ad.

processes the file?
One other thing, your QWKnet tag line appears to be using an unsupported method of Ctrl > code insertion, "\1" isn't how it's done in the SCFG->Networks->QWK->Default Tagline. You should be able to just type a literal Ctrl-A character/key sequence there.

Ahh thanks, I was wondering what it looked like, I couldn't see it in my own messages, I edited some raw text file to set that up so that's why I used \1, wasn't sure it would work, and now it's been confirmed not to ;)

Yup. :-)

Maybe there's some oddities to be taken into consideration when creating BBS ads, I'd certainly start over from scratch if I knew I was using wrong technique before and right technique going forward.

It sounds like it's just the upload method. Use raw input mode and that should settle ya.
--
digital man (rob)

Breaking Bad quote #12:
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Re: Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: fusion to MRO on Tue Sep 30 2025 12:27 am

ß²Ü ÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÜ ÛÛBlimpyÛ² ßÛÛÛÛÛÛß Ü²ß

ONE BBSCON

BLIMPY '93 NEVER FORGET
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to Digital Man on Mon Sep 29 2025 04:30 pm

confirmed not to ;)

Maybe there's some oddities to be taken into consideration when
creating BBS ads, I'd certainly start over from scratch if I knew
I was using wrong technique before and right technique going
forward.

I think you're overthinking it. just dont do a clear screen or ansimation
keep it basic.

dont do cursor positioning that will draw over text on a person's terminal.
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Re: How to format / upload ANSI art directly into message?
By: Hm Derdoc to MRO on Mon Sep 29 2025 08:38 am

What I'm doing isn't really that important though, it's not working and I'm using any point of reference, some people out there have it sorted out - I w to know what they

I'm also on MacOS... I use Moebius to edit the ANSI, then I export/save it without any sauce data or ice colors (as many extra/expanded options as possible disabled), then I run it through ans2asc that comes with Synchronet, and then I upload that either with zmodem like you described or as a local file, depending on where I'm posting from.

There was once where I had an ANSI with really long lines due to many different colors on the same line, and I had to trim some of those, but that's kinda rare.

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